Santorum Press Release
Senator Rick Santorum made the following press release today:
June 21, 2006
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, joined Congressman Peter Hoekstra, (R-MI-2), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today to make a major announcement regarding the release of newly declassified information that proves the existence of chemical munitions in Iraq since 2003. The information was released by the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, and contained an unclassified summary of analysis conducted by the National Ground Intelligence Center. In March, Senator Santorum began advocating for the release of these documents to the American public.
“The information released today proves that weapons of mass destruction are, in fact, in Iraq,” said Senator Santorum. “It is essential for the American people to understand that these weapons are in Iraq. I will continue to advocate for the complete declassification of this report so we can more fully understand the complete WMD picture inside Iraq.”
The following are the six key points contained in the unclassified overview:
• Since 2003 Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.
• Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.
• Pre-Gulf War Iraqi chemical weapons could be sold on the black market. Use of these weapons by terrorists or insurgent groups would have implications for Coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside Iraq cannot be ruled out.
• The most likely munitions remaining are sarin and mustard-filled projectiles.
• The purity of the agent inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives, and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal.
• It has been reported in open press that insurgents and Iraqi groups desire to acquire and use chemical weapons.
500 artillery rounds is a large amount and would have cause significant casualties if they had been used.
H/T Captain Ed
Other Links to this Post
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Iowa Voice — June 21, 2006 @ 7:02 pm
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Sister Toldjah — June 21, 2006 @ 7:22 pm
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Ninth State » WMDs Found in Iraq — June 21, 2006 @ 8:38 pm
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Assorted Babble by Suzie — June 21, 2006 @ 9:17 pm
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SSBG » Blog Archive » Audio Link: Senator Rick Santorum on Senate Floor - WMD Found In Iraq — June 21, 2006 @ 10:16 pm
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Webloggin - Blog Archive » MSM - Agenda of Just Bad Reporting? — June 22, 2006 @ 4:57 am
By Jim O'Hara, June 22, 2006 @ 6:11 am
Iraq used to have 40 TONS of (impure and rapidly deteriorating) sarin nerve agent. Saddam destroyed most of it in 1989 under pressure from the UN. It sounds like he missed a few shells. If Iraq developed a sarin nerve agent that was still viable six months after production, it would be quite a feat. This stuff is really, really old. From the language in the report, does it sound like these 500 shells were all found together in some secret lair, or random shells found in the thousands of munitions bunkers scattered around Iraq?
Sadly, if this stuff was actually viable, don’t you think insurgents would be using it in the IEDs?
Jim
By Gaius, June 22, 2006 @ 6:20 am
There was one used in a roadside bomb a while back as I recall. Don’t try to spin this, Jim. You look foolish trying to. They were there, they were found.